The gift that keeps on giving.....not a jelly of the month club subscription, but a creative space of my very own! Friday dh cleared out this space in our family room, rearranged the desk, painted and put up the shelf. There is a bookcase with bins to the left and even an inspiration board on the wall near that! So incredibly sweet! A place for my art supplies & music supplies, a place to create and develop lesson plans.....oh my... he loves me! (or he's sick of my piles....we won't go there)

Merry Christmas!

We've all been a tad under

the weather here,

but as you see...

a knight costume makes it better!

~ Some Christmas arts and crafts, and a promised book stack ~







Some St. Nick sketches..

















loved this one so much, he just had to be a stamp. And this stamp, not to send and not to put in a letterbox~ honestly, I think this is the first one I have kept just for me! The others are all on tracing paper and filed in my stamp drawer...so there is possibility to recreate those.

the girls and I made these paper trees today. Poppins shares her's here.


And this wreath inspired by Petunia's Christmas, the book info and activity available here .


and our book stack.
A few are old favorites, like This Way to Christmas ~ about a little boy who learns about Christmas in other lands...
and Christmas Stories by Lois Lenski (love love love her drawings) ~ a treasury of Christmas filled with short stories and poems.
Some new to us, like When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke. I thought it sounded pretty good, but so far the oldest is less than impressed. Turns out, even though we don't do Santa (you know, we're big St Nick people)...she's a purist. Swearing elves and funny angels aren't cutting it for her. But every time an elf swears, "Smelly Goblin Farts!" the little ones crack up! We're only 1/4 through.. I'll let you know the outcome.

Third Week of Advent

A new friend~

The local humane society has taken in nearly 200 surrenders since November 20th. Any pet lover should be moved by that amount, and thus I was.
We had been thinking about getting another dog for a while, as our golden really has an attitude problem. Her problem is that she thinks she is 20 years old instead of seven!

As you can see, she is already changing her tune!
Molly is our golden and Hope is our new pup. Nine months old, a lab-hound mix. She is sweet as can be, and fits VHS' description of her as a "couch potato".

She is also crate trained, which is fabulous! But, she is really at a loss when it comes to walking on a leash. That will take some training. So we've gotten a bit of an early family gift ~ Hope

We've also been busy baking! Yesterday we made these pretzel snacks.
They are so great because the kids can do most of the work, and my kids always want to help bake.

The oldest made delicious buttery spritz cookies. They are so good.

She made so many, she broke the cookie press!

It had seen better days, but I was surprised it completely broke.

I'll probably replace it because her cookies are so worth it.
And then there is this ginormous bag of M&Ms. Crazy!! Really, this should be outlawed.....

My youngest is sitting on my lap and he says that we should do another bookstack. So we'll gather some good Christmas reads today and take a few photos. Maybe there will be some new titles to share with you.

Our I Spy Christmas Card

Our I Spy Christmas Card
Originally uploaded by hsmom2luge

I spy three smiles, one bike,
a book and some treats;
a drawing, a truck,
and a small bird that tweets.
Trader Joe's cookies,
a few scrabble letters
Some things to show you
our time spent together.

The first week of Advent

lit candles ~a season of hope

greens adorn our homes

and Saint Nicholas brings goodies!

Just be careful!

and now,

the moment you've

all

been

waiting

for

~ this is post 100 ~

the winner is.........

HOLLY

First Sunday in Advent ~ the countdown has begun!
















packages have started to arrive.......


















(dh and I spent a wonderful weekend in Cincinnati)
~ love the decorations at The Cincinnatian























a little Christmas is popping up here too,
gift projects and baking are right around
the corner for sure!




**this is post 99, only one more to go!
Leave 5 random things about you in the comments,
or at your blog and you'll be entered into the give-away!